DeLand considers options for overcrowded Second Chance Animal Shelter

The city-operated Second Chance Animal Shelter was started three years ago to help ensure unwanted animals weren't euthanized, but city officials say that philosophy has led to overcrowding.

ANTHONY DEFEOSTAFF WRITER

DELAND — The city-operated Second Chance Animal Shelter was started three years ago to help ensure unwanted animals weren't euthanized, but city officials say that philosophy has led to overcrowding. At a recent City Commission meeting, commissioners balked at the idea of building a larger facility to house unwanted dogs and cats. Instead, they suggested contracting with a rescue group with its own facility to care for the animals. City officials said they would work on a request for bid proposals soon for an outside group to take over the shelter program. "On July 20, 2009, we took over the building," Officer Gary Thomas, DeLand's animal control officer, said during a recent visit. "And we took in our very first animal that day. We have not been empty since." The Second Chance Animal Shelter was created by the city at the request of animal rescue groups, which objected to animals being sent to Halifax Humane Society in Daytona Beach, where overcrowding often meant healthy animals had to be euthanized. The groups asked the city to send the animals to them, instead. The city was spending as much as $42,000 per year for Halifax's services, compared to the $14,600 that it spends on Second Chance, not including salaries, according to the 2012-13 budget. Essentially, Second Chance was supposed to be a holding facility for DeLand's rescue groups, Thomas said. By holding the animals for 72 hours, the animals become city property that could be released to whoever the city chooses – in this case, local rescue groups. But the shelter has been full or nearly full more often. The facility has six dog cages and 12 cat cages. Average stay times at Second Chance have increased from three days to more than a week. Thomas said as rescue groups have become more burdened, largely because of the economy, they can't take in animals as quickly and the logjam spills over to Second Chance. "We've got to do something different than what we're doing," Police Chief Bill Ridgway said at the city workshop last month. "We're literally on the verge of implosion right now." When the shelter is full, Thomas and his staff have to improvise. He said when they approach capacity, emergency e-mails are sent out to rescue groups for help. Failing that, Thomas said he's worked with a local humane society to use some of its space to temporarily hold Second Chance animals. DeLand officials haven't specifically adopted a no-kill policy for the shelter, but pressure from animal welfare activists, combined with ongoing efforts from the city's animal rescue groups, has made the city's shelter a de facto sanctuary for abandoned animals. "No animal has been put down because of space," said Thomas. "The only time animals are put down is on a vet's advice for serious health conditions. A rescue group has always come through." Usually, that means Animal Rescue Konsortium, or ARK, for dogs and Bill Baird, a DeLand resident who cares for cats. The shelter doesn't adopt animals out to individuals – only to rescue groups. The shelter is split into three rooms: a lobby, a room for cats and a room for dogs. An array of cat cages stands up against a wall in the cat room. Through a door is the dog room, with three very large cages on each side of an aisle. Only three dogs were there during a recent visit. The first was a skinny, mild-mannered white dog, currently on medication and recovering from mange, Thomas said. The other two were healthy, vocal pooches, awaiting transfer to a rescue group. Though plain and small, the facility appeared well kept. The dogs are walked and fed twice a day, every day, Thomas said, and a veterinarian with an office just a few doors down provides medical treatment for the animals. During the visit, Officer Thomas reached into a large cage, set up specifically for a feral tabby cat he picked up off the street a few weeks earlier. She birthed a litter of kittens at Second Chance – three-week-old squirming bundles of fur. He picked one up and let it crawl atop his shoulder. "These animals, we see them every day. They become part of us," said Thomas. "There's lots of times when we release an animal to a rescue group that we know is going to a home directly and it still bothers us, because it's like losing one of your own pets."